London Breed, during her formal San Francisco mayoral election victory speech on June 14 at Rosa Parks Elementary School, pledged to “push the envelope” and to “make the hard decisions” concerning the city’s many challenges that include homelessness, crime, transportation and education problems, affordability issues and so much more. As Mark Leno said during his concession speech on June 13, “We all wish her the best because her success is San Francisco’s success.”

The San Francisco Department of Elections has until July 5 to prepare a certified statement of all June 5 election results and then to submit it to the Board of Supervisors. The Board is scheduled to meet on July 10, after which Breed may be sworn in.

Breed’s election is historic in many respects. In addition to becoming San Francisco’s first ever African American female mayor, she will be only the second woman ever to serve in that role here, following now Senator Dianne Feinstein (San Francisco mayor from 1978–1988). Nationwide, the country’s 14 largest cities all currently have male mayors, with only three of those being men of color. Consider that Los Angeles, New York City and Philadelphia have never had female mayors.

In a piece recently published in the San Francisco Bay Times, Roma Guy and Debra Walker jointly wrote: “London Breed is the exact person we need to lead San Francisco. All of us supporting her have long recognized her ability to identify problems and bring together people around solutions.”

They added, “We’ve seen her advocate on behalf of tenants to improve conditions in affordable housing across our city. We have all supported her efforts to bring compassion into the solutions for those without homes who are looking to our city leaders for help. And we have applauded her efforts to reform a challenged law enforcement community while working to keep our streets safe for us all.”

They concluded: “It is time that we return a woman to the Mayor’s office in San Francisco City Hall. It is so time for this strong woman, London Breed, to represent all San Franciscans.”